Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck is in production on his next documentary, tentatively titled The Hands That Held the Knives, an investigation into the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise.
Over two years in the making, with unprecedented access to many of those involved, and including secret filming in Haiti’s prisons and an unexpected encounter with a fugitive who was an eyewitness to the murder, Peck’s film will be a documentary thriller, in the tradition of Graham Greene or John Le Carré.
Peck’s investigation will take him deep into the politics of Haiti, its relationship with the United States, and the corrupt business empires and criminal organizations – dealing drugs and contraband throughout the Caribbean, using weapons trafficked from the US – which have now rendered the country a hellscape for its citizens.
The film will take us right up to the present moment, as ruthless gangs backed by oligarchs with well-paid lobbyists in Washington, D.C. now control 80% of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
Editing is underway and shooting continues in Haiti, the US, Canada, France, and North Africa, following the tracks of those involved.
Peck is also producing the film under his Velvet Films banner alongside Jigsaw Productions, with Imagine Documentaries, Anonymous Content, and Double Agent, who are also financing the project. Alex Gibney is producing for Jigsaw. Blair Foster is also producing. Sara Bernstein is executive producing on behalf of Imagine. Anonymous Content’s Nick Shumaker produces, with David Levine and Jessica Grimshaw executive producing.
Dana O’Keefe produces on behalf of Double Agent, with Teddy Schwarzman, Yariv Milchan, and Michael Heimler executive producing.
“I am eager to tell my country’s real story beyond the usual exotic clichés and preposterous clickbait,” says Peck. “I want to reveal for once, without holding back, the core stories and real reasons for Haiti’s tragic situation.”
“This is a story that only Raoul Peck can tell,” says Gibney. “A former Minister of Culture in Haiti, Raoul has been in the belly of the beast of Haiti’s politics and is the only filmmaker alive with the knowledge of the country and the extraordinary skill as a filmmaker to be able to tell this tale, which has global implications, as governments fall, one by one, to the ruthless pursuit of money and power.”
Peck is known for using historical, political, and personal characters to tackle and recount societal issues and historical events, in films such as I Am Not Your Negro (winner of BAFTA and CESAR awards and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary), Silver Dollar Road, and the HBO mini-series Exterminate All the Brutes.
AC Independent, Double Agent, and Range Media Partners will represent worldwide sales rights.
Peck is represented by Jessica Lacy at Range Media Partners and Nina Shaw at Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang.